PATRIOTIC COMMISSIONER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 May 1943, Page 5

PATRIOTIC COMMISSIONER

TWO YEARS IN MIDDLE EAST. LIEUT.-COLONEL F. WAITE.The Patriotic Board Commissioner, Lieutenant-Colonel F. Waite, has completed two years in the Middle East. He left New Zealand with the Second Echelon, but as a result of these troops being diverted to Great Britain after Italy came into the war he spent some time in the United Kingdom before going to the Middle East. In a recent report he said he was glad to say that he had not had any serious illness since leaving the Dominion. Colonel Waite pays tribute to the assistance he has received from the Second N.Z.E.F. “I have at all times received from all ranks of the Second N.Z.E.F. the fullest co-operation,” he says. “The board is greatly indebted to all, from the G.O.C. down, for the assistance given in administration, transport, and distribution.” As his assistant in his Cairo office. Colonel Waite has Second-Lieutenant J. W. Kealy, who keeps the books and accounts, does any typing necessary, and represents the Commissioner when he is absent from Cairo. Lieutenant K. R. Collins is in charge of the patriotic store at Maadi, and has three storemen to assist him. Lieutenant Collins also acts as secretary to the Second N.Z.E.F. Welfare Committee. The two officers and the three other ranks are supplied from the Second N.Z.E.F. The board has also appointed a Commissioner to the Pacific area —Major C. W. O. Brain—who will be taking up his duties shortly.